Freshly cut flowers are a great way to add a pop of colour to any space. But nothing is more disappointing than seeing your newly bought blooms perish a few days later.
WATCH: How To Make A Handled Vase
Before you throw your blooms into a vase and call it a day, there are a few easy things that you can do to ensure your buds last longer. If you were thinking flower food, yes that’s a great place to start. But if you don’t have a spare sachet, a few household items you already have stocked in your pantry will do the trick.
Here, are 7 simple hacks to extend the life of your petals
1. Remove any leaves below the water line
Leaves left below the water line breed bacteria, so make sure you remove them before housing your flowers.
2. Vodka
Cracked open a bottle of vodka over the weekend? Who would’ve thought that flowers enjoy a boozy pick-me-up too.
Simply add a few drops of vodka to your vase. A few drops of the distilled alcoholic beverage helps to preserve flowers due to its ability to inhibit ethylene production. As a ripening gas, ethylene aids the maturation process of your plants and slows down the wilting. Alcohol is also an antibacterial agent, which further makes vodka a rejuvenating drink for your flowers.
3. Sprite or lemonade
A can of Sprite can do wonders for your fresh blooms. The fizzy drink makes the water in your vase more acidic, enabling it to travel up the stem more quickly. What’s more, the sugar also acts as flower food. Simply add 60ml of Sprite into your vase and before you know it your flowers will be well fed and start to smell very sweet!
According to the Good Housekeeping Institute, testers discovered that a little lemonade in the water of the vase you’re keeping your flowers in can “work wonders”.
An industry insider agrees.
The Great British Florist suggests that you can make flowers last longer by simply adding a small glass of fizzy lemonade to the water.
“The mix of acid and sugar helps to stop bacteria and therefore helps the life of your flowers.”
Just make sure you avoid diet lemonade as it’s the sugar that’s effective in the lemonade.
4. Apple cider vinegar and sugar
You’re not making a tasty dressing for your salad, but the combo of apple cider vinegar and sugar to flowers is just as effective as adding store-bought flower foods. The vinegar acts as an antibacterial agent, while the sugar acts as additional flower food. Try mixing two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and two tablespoons of sugar into the water in your vase before popping in your flowers.
5. Copper penny
If you have a spare copper penny lying around the home, drop it into the middle of your vase. Copper is a fungicide and naturally kills bacteria growth in your flower arrangement. After a couple of days, you’ll notice that the blooms with the penny will have opened up quite nicely.
6. Change the water
This a given, but make sure you change the water every other day and also wash the vase out with detergent to remove any bacteria.
7. The fridge
An experiment conducted in a controlled environment put several theories for keeping flowers fresh to the test. Interestingly, the fridge was the winner. If you have room, place your vase in the refrigerator overnight (typically for eight hours) and bring them out again the next day. The cool temperature will slow down and delay the ageing process, and your flowers should last up to seven days.
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